Injiva remanded over R87 000 fraud

Milton Ndlovu (35), of Thungulula area, Ebalozwini Village under Chief Maduna in Filabusi, was arrested last month for misrepresenting to another injiva that he wanted to send R87 000 home from South Africa yet he did not have the money.
He, in the company of Castro, who is still at large, allegedly went to a South African bank to deposit a fake cheque, which bounced. The court wants the duo to appear together.
Ndlovu appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Mr Gideon Ruvetsa yesterday to answer to a charge of fraud.
He was not asked to plead and was further remanded in custody to 26 January in anticipation that Castro would have been arrested.
Allegations against Ndlovu are that he hatched a plan in connivance with Castro to defraud Mr Shepherd Ndlovu, who was reportedly in the business of assisting people send money to Zimbabwe from South Africa.
Shepherd allegedly gave Ndlovu a South African bank account number where he was supposed to deposit the money so that he would send it to his relatives in Zimbabwe.
Ndlovu, in connivance with Castro, allegedly manufactured a cheque with a face value of R87 000 and deposited it in Shepherd’s account.
He then reportedly phoned Shepherd informing him to give the money to his relatives Mr Bongani Ndlovu and Ms Sakhile Ndlovu in Cowdray Park, which he did.
The alleged fraud came to light when Shepherd went to the bank intending to withdraw the said money and discovered that the cheque had been dishonoured and no money had been deposited into his account.
Bank officials told Shepherd that Ndlovu’s account had no such amount of money as he had stated on the cheque.
Ndlovu had been on the run since the commission of the crime in 2010. He, however, ran out of luck when he returned home for the Christmas holiday and was immediately arrested.
The State led by Mr Jeremiah Mutsindikwa alleges that between 13 and 22 December 2010, Ndlovu and his friend Castro allegedly hatched a plan to defraud Shepherd on the pretext that they wanted to send money to Zimbabwe from South Africa knowing they did not have money in the bank.
After contacting Shepherd who was offering the service, Ndlovu and Castro allegedly went on to manufacture a cheque, which they would use to defraud him.
Ndlovu was arrested just before Christmas Day after police received a tip-off from members of the public that he was in the country.